On ieavin

AVING SPENT a few

years teaching at the

Ontario College of
Art in Toronto before com-
ing to Vancouver two years
ago, | thought { was fairly
well-informed about the art
scene in Canada.

Archie Graham
ART REVIEW

But like some in “The Fast,” |
was more oF less ignorant about
what was going on at the other
end of the country.

Sure, | hac heard of Emily Carr,
Jack Shadbolt, Jeff Wall, Roy
Kiyooka, and fan Wallace. along
with a few others But § was largely
unfamiliar with the Vancouver arts
community.

My two-year stint as art critic for
the North Shore News changed
all that.

tcan happily report that | have
learned an important lessun in
Canadian cultural politics.

Since Emily Carr, Vancouver has
been, and continues to he, a cen-
tre of vigorous art activity.

From the Vancouver Art Gallery
to the numerous artist-run centres,
art production stubbornly defies
the recession, in some cases thriv-
ing in spite of it.

In fact, it has spilled out of such
venues into streets, warehouses,
restaurants, theatres, and hotels.

It ranges from the kind that gen-
erates big business (the Waterfront
Hote: offers an art tour of its
noteworthy collection to Sunday-
brunch patrons) to the kind that
flows from what loca! video-artist
Sara Diamond, in Stan Douglas’
Vancouver Anthology. calls ‘‘the
cauldron of radical West Caast
counterculture.”

Artropolis, the warehouse-ex-
hibition of emerging artists which
is held every few years in Van-
couver, is a unique event in Ca-
nadian cultural production.

There is no other equivalent
vehicle for the promotion of less-
er-known, non-institutionalized ar-
tists in the country.

Artropolis is not only a unique
showplace for such artists, how-
ever; it serves as an example of the
local art-community’s organiza-
tional panache and political self-
assertion.

Art on the North Shore con-
tinues to flourish.

Presentation House, now show-
ing dramatic works dealing with
family violence by Rita McKeough
and Holly Roberts, consistently

tional and international photo-ar-
tists.

The Alpha-Gallery, currently
cunning an exhibition of paintings
called Head Hunter Simpson,
seems likely to survive its present
financial crisis and retain its inieg-
rity as a venue for serious art.

The well-funded Ferry Building,
though it tends to present less
challenging shows than the other
iwo galleries, enthusiastically fulfils
its mandate te promote the work
of North Shore artisis.

In tranquil Deep Cove, where t
have lived in dreamy seclusion for
the past couple of years, the new
Cultural Centre on Gallant Avenue
now houses an apparently re-
juvenated Seymour Art Gallery.

Even though coordinator Patricia
Calendar denies the mandate of
the gallery has changed, the cur-
rent exhibition and the 1992

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schedule suggest that we are going
to see far more adventurous shows
at this venue.

Heavyweights like Gordon
Smith, Bill Featherston, Ted
Kingan and Arnold Shives are
coupled with rising stars like Peter
Braune, Sanwa Yawnghwe, Vicki
Engtish and Doug Biden.

Why, you may well ask, with all
this cultural richness on my
doorstep, the beautiful B.C. land-
scape, balmy weather, and friend-
ly, easy-poing neighbors, do | want
to return to frantic, heartless, and
recession-weary Toronto? Why,
indeed, would anyone want to
leave here for there?

Well, my wife Angele has been
offered a career opportunity she
could nardly refuse, and | feel
compelled to suppor her, even
though both of us regret that we
must leave dear old Lotusland.

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Wednesday, April 29, 1992 - North Shore News - 37

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